Digital music has become readily available due in part to the development of consumer level technology that has allowed people to listen to digital music on a personal audio device. The consumer's increasing preference for digital audio has also resulted in the integration of personal audio devices into PDAs, cellular phones, and other mobile devices. The portability of these mobile devices has enabled people to take the music listening experience with them and outside of the home. People have become able to consume digital music, like digital music files or even Internet radio, in the home through the use of their computer or similar devices. Now there are many different ways to consume digital music, in addition to other digital content including digital video and photos, stimulated in many ways by high-speed Internet access at home, mobile broadband Internet access, and the consumer's hunger for digital media.
Until recently, options for accessing and listening to digital audio in an out-loud setting were severely limited. In 2005, Sonos offered for sale its first digital audio system that enabled people to, among many other things, access virtually unlimited sources of audio via one or more networked connected zone players, dynamically group or ungroup zone players upon command, wirelessly send the audio over a local network amongst zone players, and play the digital audio out loud across multiple zone players in synchrony. The Sonos system can be controlled by software applications running on network capable mobile devices and computers.
Along with consumers' increased preference for digital audio, many consumers have an increased preference for “going green.” One common step taken by people attempting to “go green” is to reduce the amount of energy they consume. For example, consumers who are going green may make a conscious effort to turn off a light whenever they leave a room. Additionally, people may only purchase electronics that are rated to be “energy efficient.” Other such examples of “going green” exist as well.
In view of this growing trending preference, some electronics developers are making efforts to “go green” as well. In the context of electronic devices within a network (e.g., a networked audio system), going green may have many challenges. For instance, certain devices may perform tasks that generally require the consumption of a relatively high amount of energy. Thus, if using conventional approaches, “going green” may be undesirable and possibly even impractical in certain networks and/or certain environments.
In addition, the drawings are for the purpose of illustrating example embodiments, but it is understood that the inventions are not limited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings.